Sand Storm is the latest literary blogger to predict the end of the book as we know and love it. He also points out that according to the International Digital Publishing Forum, some $11 million of digital books were sold last year. There are some other useful links in his post related to this topic.

I think that reports of the book’s demise have been exaggerated. Sand Storm compares the digital book to the iPod. It’s true that music downloads are giving the CD sellers a hard time, but then again, CDs haven’t been around for centuries. Books are deeply ingrained in our culture. They are going to be tough to dislodge from our shelves and our hearts.

For the foreseeable future, digital books will supplement print. You can search digital texts, annotate them, copy them, and share them easily. Exbiblio plans to closely integrate the print and online experience. But I don’t think you can write the obituary of the book just yet.